LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:9 September 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Intricate Domestic Ties in Shashi Deshpande’s Novels
Roots and Shadows and A Matter of Time

K. Maheswari, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil.

Human Relations

In life everybody has to live within relationships, for there is no other way. The underlying theme in Shashi Deshpande’s novels is human relationships, especially the ones that exist between father and daughter, husband and wife and also between mother and daughter. A survey of her novels reveal the various aspects and various dimensions of familial relationships: mother-daughter, father-daughter, brother-sister relationship with in-laws, and the much focused husband-wife relationship which is the foundation and core of the Indian family from where many new relationships take shape and develop. The joint family includes many more relationships like uncle-aunt, both paternal and maternal, their children and their ties with them and the grand children’s bond with their grandparents, and so on. The purpose of this paper is to examine how these relationships have been portrayed in a very realistic and transparent way with the joys and sorrows that accompany everyday life and nobody can escape what life offers and this in turn has an impact on the individual’s future course of life.

Shashi Deshpande is one of the famous contemporary Indian novelists in English. She primarily reflects on the problems and concerns of the middle class Indian women. Her writings, rooted in the culture in which she lives, remain sensitive to the common everyday events and experiences, and they give artistic expression to something that is simple and mundane. Her feminism is peculiarly Indian in the sense that it is born out of the predicament of Indian women placed between contradictory identities: tradition and modernity, family and profession, culture and nature. Her feminism rooted in the native environment tends to be humanistic and optimistic in its outlook.

Surrogate Mother

The novelist uses the cinematic technique of flashback for narration and Roots and Shadows opens with Indu, middle-class orthodox Brahmin girl, returning to her ancestral place after eleven years in order to attend the funeral ceremony of Akka, the 'old rich family tyrant’. Akka, the surrogate mother of Indu, is a domineering woman in the novel. She is a childless widow and symbolizes authority. Her word is a law in the house and no one dared to object and question her authority. Till her death, she had maintained her power, her authority over everyone. Indu has been brought up under her authority and control. But she always questions her authority and wants to set herself free. Both Akka and Indu have incompatible temperaments and they represent two different worlds. Akka represents the old generation, tradition and authority, while Indu the new generation, modernity and freedom.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

K. Maheswari, M.A., B.Ed. M.Phil.
Department of English
The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women
Sivakasi 626 123
Tamilnadu
India
maheswari.nkp@gmail.com
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